Can anyone lend a helping hand?

eledile

eledile

Active member
Okay, so I have been tossing around the idea of getting a salt water aquarium..

I have heard MANY pros, cons, and mixed opinions about getting and maintaining one, and it kinda makes me feel like :headwally:

I figured I would just ask everyone here what their thoughts were and maybe share some experience and maybe some wisdom on the idea.

I'm not 100% sure of what exactly I want. Either a species tank or a reef tank.
I'm probably going to go reef. I like little shrimps and crustaceans and plants.

If you have any advice or tips for a beginner (and I mean BEGINNER)
please let me know. I really want to get into this type of thing, but I just DON'T want to make a lot of mistakes, because I know when you make mistakes it can be very discouraging.

Thanks everyone!
Jordan
 
I found myself in your same situation about 8 months ago. I started reading on this forum everyday for a few hours at a time to find out as much information as I could about the hobby so that I could know exactly what I want and how to go about executing it. I'd start by reading all the stickys at the top of this forum because they are filled with invaluable information. Join your local reef club as well.
 
research!! Watch video's on youtube. Make a game plan of what you want. Then make sure your tank is big enough, and your lighting will handle what you want in your tank.
 
Make an Excel spreadsheet with a line item for everything you are going to need. Put the price of what each costs and figure out what you need to spend. You can continue the spreadsheet for stocking and maintainence. This is an expensive hobby so best to get the financials in order from the start.
 
Well just focus on the stuff that will be the same regardless of which direction you want to go. Coincidentally those are the things you need to get started!

In other words: tank, saltwater, rocks, sand?, heater, powerheads.

You're going to need those things no matter what. And you're going to need a "cycled," stable system. So you can work on those basics while continuing to research everything else.

The next big question after the above is lighting. But you can figure that out while you're putting the above together. The best way to save yourself some wasted money is to assume you're going to end up keeping high light SPS corals. Heh. You don't want to have "wimpy light buyers remorse" like so many of us have had in the past!

But anyhow, step 1: what size tank do you want? Or the way I like to think of it: what size tank can you fit in your house? :)
 
Thanks for all the input guys! I do know this is a very expensive hobby, and I have been researching for the last 3 months about everything, but I wanted to get people's ideas and experiences before I "took the dive" so to speak..

I spent most if yesterday and the early hours of today on here, and after much reading and looking at pictures, I have decided I want a tank with lots or corals, some shrimps, gobies, and maybe some smaller schooling fish. I definitely like the idea of microscaping.

I don't want the tank to be HUGE, I was thinking of getting a small bio cube to start with, just to learn how to play doctor and start with. Then once I feel confident in my abilities upgrade to like a 60g cube or something, and then use my smaller tank as a quarantine tank. Because I'm sure those are very important.

I know its best to have a larger water volume to make things more stable, so I was thinking about putting a decent sized sump on the tank to increase water volume and stability.

This is just my rough draft of what I would like to do. I work at a local pet store, and there is very minimal salt water supplies, and my boss has yet to teach me anything about salt water like he said he would 8 months ago..so I'm taking it into my own hands now.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Also one thing I overlooked when I started is there are a TON of people not only on this forum but in others that are very helpful and also may be in your area and can help get you started... Also look in the swap sheets or in your local classifieds you may be able to get some of the equipment you need cheaper... boy I tell ya if i didnt have a friend showing me how it all works I would have been up the creek. lol There is ALOT involved in this hobby and there is even more if you want to worry about it lol I think you can get a good nano reef up and running for under $600 if you do it right
 
I would recommend a tank at least 30 -50 gallons. the smaller the tank, the easier it is for something to go wrong quickly.You have to be more on top of your water quality the smaller the tank. my 2 cents worth
 
I just setup my !@ nano cube and after all is said & done it'll be about 500$ for EVERYTHING fish included. but I picked up my cube off CL and my LFS had a huge sale that same weekend so I planned it out right & picked up all the LR, LS, powerhead, heater, etc. just letting it cycle now. Im no expert but im here if you need examples of what's going on. I've been taking pictures & ill get the build up thread started once I've actually got the first inhyabitant in january once my uncure rock is cured & cycled.

just make sure you research EVERYTHING. it's like cutting wood, measure twice cut once. plan for what you can afford and leave yourself a pretty big amount of play in that total.
 
I'm a fellow new saltwater person, so welcome. What I did was take things slow. Set up the tank with the live rock, powerheads, hang on back filter, heater and cheap light (and test kit)

That's enough that you can run a FOWLR set-up. Then you can add to it little by little. I started upgrading my lights with these LED strip lights, so you don't have to buy it all at once. Added a protein skimmer a week or so ago.

It really helps to lessen the financial impact if you smear the expenses across a few months.
 
does anyone think getting a bio cube to start would be a bad idea?
I have a few spare tanks laying around the house but they aren't much bigger than the bio cube that's in our store..It's only 8 gallons but I was going to rig some sort of sump to it to increase water volume.
 
I love my 29 gal biocube HQI. Honestly its been just as hard to keep it maintained as my bigger tank. I am picky about how things look like the rockscape and microbubbles and my hands seem to be always in my tank tinkering with something. Finally got the rockscape like i want and i made a dyi media basket and fuge so hopefully i can keep my hands out and just do my regular water changes. I also will mention the cost of this hobby is crazy expensive. Sometimes i just want to get out of the hobby but i have too much invested to quit. Then there are times when my tanks look so beautiful that i remember thats why i started this hobby in the first place. Once your tank has aged i think alot of the little problems go away with experience. My bigger tank can pretty much go on auto pilot with just the weekly water changes and top offs.
 
okay. so then it's decided. I will start with a bio cube and do some corals and shrimps and gobies maybe? If those are compatible?
 
@Jocko is right. You can get your basics and get started while you research the more detailed (difficult?) part. You can't do anything without a tank, saltwater, rock, powerhead(s), a heater and a completed cycle. You can get that started while you do your homework, since it may well take a couple (2-3) months.

In the meantime...start your homework!

My experience starting up would definitely be classified as "discouraging." I started off making a huge mistake: I listened to the advice of a Local Fish Store owner and assumed he was steering me straight.

That assumption cost me some fish, a good but of money, a LOT of time, and a couple broken hearted little kids (first time a pet died for the tykes).

So - don't assume the guy at the pet store knows what the heck he is talking about. Get at least 3-4 sources of input for each question and then make your own best decision.

Overall... it is a fun hobby. I think it appeals to my pedantic nature - I sometimes sit on the floor with my face 2 inches from the aquarium staring at the crevices in the rocks. I'll do that until my legs fall asleep. :-) And it's always worth it.

Do know that you'll be dealing with your tank every day. Water testing, top offs, skimmer cup cleaning, feeding - these are all daily - or nearly daily - jobs. It is not a set it and forget it hobby. It's not a guitar in the corner that you pick up when you feel like it.

If you're going to do it, be prepared to give it attention every day. More in the beginning as you're learning.

Good luck!
 
I also have another question.

Will any of my freshwater experience help me out some with my salt water experience?
Similar to knowing how to swim before you sign up for swimming lessons?
Or is it two separate things?
 
Depends on how dedicated you were to your freshwater tank. If it was a planted tank it was probably alot of work to maintain. I have a 55 gal fw tank and its pretty basic at the moment. Feed the fish, Clean the glass occasionally, top off regularly. Its pretty easy to maintain with minimal attention from me. Actually my 11 yr old takes care of it since its in his room.

Now keeping a sw tank is a completely different experience. Alot can go wrong with a sw tank.

There are alot of good information on rc and other sw sites. You can set up the tank and get it cycling while you read up on what it will require to maintain your tank.

The advice i can give you is to start off with ro/di water to prevent heartache down the road with hair algae. If you can get some good cycled rock with life in it you will have something to watch moving around while waiting out the cycle.
 
Where can I get RO/DI water from? or better yet where can I get a system? I have a 150g freshwater tank with two very large catfish in it (hence my username) I'm very meticulous when it comes to keeping it clean, and for the most part I don't really have to do much.

I know that keeping a sw tank is a lot more work. I work at a fish store, but unfortunately there isn't a large market for sw out here in BFE, so my knowledge is lacking in this area. I have plenty of books to read when it gets slow, which I take advantage of frequently, but I have a hard time learning from books. I need to talk to people and get feedback. If I ask the book a question, most of the time it usually doesn't answer.

I learn from experience, and by talking to people with experience. I'm a "hands on" kind of guy.


Would I be able to put corals, shrimps, and gobies in the same tank? it's going to be a rather small tank. 8g bio cube. I don't want a billion fish in there, maybe just one or two gobies, 3 shrimp, and plenty of corals. (I want the corals because they have awesome color, my girlfriend wants shrimps and gobies..lol)
 
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